Gard against the Labinnac
by Jet556
Summary: In search of a ring at the top of the tallest mountain in the vast, unknown Wilderness, Gard encounters a hunting party or war band of Labinnac, since with that race their is no distinguishing the two kinds of groups. To Gard, the Wilderness is sacred ground. To the Labinnac, it is hunting ground. To anyone else, the Labinnac would have started a fight. To Gard, they started a war.
1. Home

**Welcome everyone. This is a story I've been meaning to do for a long time. Putting Gard back into the Wilderness and pit the Labinnac hordes against him. I love this idea because it puts my first Evabon hero alone against his people's greatest enemy in the place he spent his centuries long exile. Also, I'm surprised to say that the Evabon Saga now has a page on TV Tropes. I never thought that would ever happen. Anyway, lets get on with the story. Enjoy and review.**

 **Home**

Home. What a strange word. For Gard who had longed to return to the place of his birth, the tablelands, and had been to the Valley of the Tombs and to Wilusa, it was not any of those places that he considered to be home. Instead it was the place where he had spent his centuries long exile: the vast, unknown Wilderness. To him, this place that he knew so well but still jealously guarded so many of its secrets from him it was sacred ground.

But this time there was a feeling of danger in the Wilderness. Something was wrong and Gard knew it. Panic was uncommon in the creatures of the Wilderness. This morning was filled with terror. Few events brought such fear into the Wilderness as the coming of the Labinnac. Even the greatest hunters and largest beasts fled to avoid the vicious onslaught caused by the Labinnac.

To the Labinnac the Wilderness was hunting ground, nothing more. Gard had come here to find an object that would aid in the Siege of Wilusa and now it seemed that the very villains that now laid siege to the cradle of Evabon civilization had followed him to the place held most sacred of all.

As Gard knelt by a river scooping his right hand in to it and bringing the water to his lips, something caught his eye. It was blood. It did not matter whom or what the blood belonged to, all Gard knew was that it was blood. Gard looked up ahead to where the trail of blood was coming from and he saw a Labinnac with blood upon its hands and lips, drinking from the water with loud sucking noise of his lips and gurgles of satisfaction making his presence so well known that the Labinnac essentially drowned out the noise of the river.

Gard was a man of honor and to kill someone while they quenched their thirst, even someone as villainous as a Labinnac, was something he could not do. But still, there was nothing to be said about making his presence known and that he did by tapping his axe against a nearby rock.

The Labinnac stood up, turned and looked at him. Upon seeing Gard, the Labinnac made a grunting noise and attacked by jumping at Gard who retaliated by throwing his axe into the face of the attacker with such a force that it sent the Labinnac clean across the river.

Then the rest of the hunting party or war band, since with Labinnac there was no distinguishing one from the other, showed up. An average Labinnac hunting part or war band consisted of fifty hunters or warriors.


	2. One against Forty-Nine

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **One against Forty-nine**

Gard was one, the Labinnac were forty-nine. He may have been outnumbered but he was not outmatched. As he stood before the growling horde, his good eye looked at the axe that was in the face of the Labinnac he had just killed.

He could get it in time.

Making a jump across the river, Gard grabbed his axe as another Labinnac jumped at him. Thus another Labinnac was laid low.

Then did Gard see the rest of the Labinnac charging right at him. Jumping into a nearby tree, Gard was quick to avoid the crossbow bolts being fired at him but even then one as old as he could not avoid being hit by at least one bolt. It grazed him but he had been hit nonetheless.

When the Labinnac realized that there were no closer to hitting Gard with crossbows, they climbed up after him. With their claw like hands, they climbed with their eyes on Gard and Gard alone.

Watching as they climbed up after him, the wheels in Gard's head turned. He had come with just his axe, the weapon he felt most comfortable with, and if he were to throw it now he'd have to jump back down and get it.

Then did Gard take notice of the tree he was in! It was dead and that was something Gard would have no guilt of using his axe on.

Swinging his axe with such a force that it cut a nearby limb clean off, Gard smiled as the limb fell down and crushed ten Labinnac. Now they were only thirty-eight but if he were to continue doing this they would ultimately reach him. He needed a new plan.

Turning his head, the Old Savage finally saw a way through the trees. Staying in one place would do him no good. He had to keep moving otherwise he'd be an easy target for the cannibalistic monsters.

Jumping to another tree, Gard soon found the Labinnac pursuing him. They were persistent and he had at least that much respect for the Labinnac hordes. The followed him, jumping to the other tree and following him through the trees as swiftly as he traversed through them.

He had been in this situation once long ago in his youth. Now Gard was old, wise and strong. This time would be different.


	3. To the Mountains

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **To the Mountains**

The battle quickly took a turn from the trees to the mountains. As Gard defended himself by sending the very rocks of the mountains down upon the Labinnac it seemed that the ones that did not get killed simply got a fiercer desire to kill him. Though he began to tire of this, Gard knew that if he did not put an end to the Labinnac he'd be a dead man.

Taking a moment to rest on the side of the mountain, Gard thought about all those who were back at Wilusa. He thought of Piyamaradu, the wise Chieftain of Evabon. He thought of Ekoto, proud son of Piyamaradu. He thought of the might Zuvowang and cunning Dalv, good friends of his. He thought of Balor, his young descendant. He thought of Brigid, Balor's arranged bride and Zuvowang's young descendant whom he at one point claimed looked much like a wife of his for Zuvowang had been married more than once.

He then thought of one not at Wilusa. He thought of Kernunnos, Dalv's deformed but wise descendant who had fallen at Sengann.

Standing up, Gard once more looked down at the Labinnac. There were three of them.

They stared back up at him and they did something Gard had never known Labinnac to do. They saluted him and started to climb down the mountain.


	4. Respect

**Welcome back everyone. Here ends this story with some contemplations. Enjoy and review.**

 **Respect**

Sitting upon the mountainside, Gard thought about what had occurred. The surviving three Labinnac had abandoned the chase and saluted him. Was it really possible for the Labinnac to show respect to an Evabon such as himself?

Gard had been fighting Labinnac for as long as he could remember. He must been sixteen or seventeen or eighteen when he first started fighting them. They were like old friends almost. They are the opponents Gard could not completely defeat even by himself and he was the one Evabon the Labinnac hordes could not defeat even with superior numbers. Was it possible that the respect these three Labinnac had shown him could help him one day?

The only thing that Gard regretted was that with the conflicts going and the ages of warfare between the two races that Gard and those three could not be friends. Some day the fighting would just have to end peacefully.

 **The End**


End file.
